Information and commentary about the struggle for democracy in the African kingdom of Swaziland

Thursday, October 17, 2013

CALL TO CUT ALL FUNDING OF THE KING

King Mswati III of Swaziland and his family have been
likened to an ‘organised crime syndicate’ for the way they take money from the
Swazi people.

The Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) has launched a
campaign to cut all financing of the king.

Announcing its Red October Campaign, the CPS said the
money spent by King Mswati, who rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute
monarch, should be diverted for reconstruction and development of Swaziland.

Kenneth Kunene, CPS General Secretary, called for ‘an end
to decades of systemic abuse and neglect of the Swazi people’.

Launching a campaign called ‘Not another cent for Mswati’
Kunene said, ‘Mswati must not receive another cent from the state or from the
funds he is supposed to be “holding in trust for the Swazi nation” – the
euphemistic term that is a smokescreen to hide Mswati’s corrupt seizure of
national wealth. Mswati’s predecessor, Sobhuza II, created the funds in the
1970s to sustain the absolute monarchy into the future.

‘There is no accountability concerning these funds, no
parliamentary oversight of them, and none of them figure in the national budget
or in any official information on state resources.

‘The largest such fund, Tibiyo Taka Ngwane is an
investment fund with shares in companies, industry, real estate, and tourism.
It has 50 percent ownership of Ubombo Sugar Limited, the Swazi branch of the
Illovo Sugar Group. It also has shares in Nedbank Swaziland, Swazispa Holdings
Ltd., the Swaziland Development and Finance Group, the Royal Swaziland Sugar
Corp., and Bhunu Mall.

Kunene estimated the value of Tibiyo at US$2 billion.

He added, ‘The second source of Mswati’s illicit income
is Tisuka Taka Ngwane, which is a residential and commercial property
developer.

‘Both funds account for some 50 percent of the Swazi
economy.’

Kunene said, ‘That poverty and disease are such blights
on the lives of the Swazi people is directly and incontrovertibly linked to
Mswati’s sources of income.

‘We think it is high time that everything held in trust
for the Swazi nation is now handed over to the people. Mswati has done a bad
job at holding it in trust for us. The country needs its wealth back, and the
CPS is calling on people to demand what is theirs.’

The Red October Campaign also demands that the R400
million (US$40 million) given to the royal family each year from the state budget
be immediately cancelled.

‘Mswati and his family are no different than an organized
crime syndicate,’ said Kunene. ‘And the way you deal with organized crime is to
cut off its access to ready cash. That way it will shrivel up and die. And
that’s what we want to see happen with the Mswati regime.’

The CPS said the campaign would focus on ‘making people
in Swaziland aware of the vast drain on the country’s finances in order to
sustain the Mswati autocracy’.

It will lobby businesses in South Africa and other
countries that have operations in Swaziland to refuse to pay any revenue or ‘bribes’
to Mswati.

Kunene said, ‘The CPS will also expose the links between
Mswati’s wealth and the degradation and impoverishment of the people of
Swaziland. It will point out what the money Mswati gets each month could do if
directed to social, health and education needs – all vastly underfunded – and
how a strategy to provide free ARVs and TB treatment for all could be funded
from Mswati’s ill-gotten millions.’